Customer Reviews

Angel Scene / Teeth and Tongue Landscape (Eraserhead Double #2)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

That's exactly what these two novels will make you feel. I found these to be the exact refreshment I was looking for, like a cool glass of lemonade in a sweltering summer.

Both are avant-garde, as you would expect, illustrations peppered throughout. Angel Scene is chock full of exquisite technological artwork, while Teeth and Tongue has the occasional pencil-sketch. Both are quite high-quality, but some of the illustrations are misplaced, or cut off at certain points, which caused a few ripples in my reading. Nothing serious.

Carlton Mellick III is excellent as always, although Teeth and Tongue is a considerably smaller-scale novella compared to his other works. The novella/novel is rather an exploration of a meaty landscape told through his amusingly unique 1st person view, fast becoming his own definitive voice. Although not a great deal happens in the novel, it is highly readable and satisfying all the same.

Angel Scene is a blitzkieg of sexual scenarios, Kadrey's immensely fertile mind set ablaze in the bodies of the Angels. Disturbing on all stages, sometimes even mortifying. It's fascinating how the human mind can imagine and list down such erotic terrors, blindly cruel manipulations of sexual genitalia. The novel is very short, made out of around 40 one/two page chapters.

Both novels chart the decay and machinations of a human, with an almost robotic mind. Also, they share the theme of ugly/beautiful, something cherubic and devilish at the same time. Need a release? Buy this book.

I'll be completely honest, I haven't made it through "Angel Scene" yet. I bought this because of Carlton Mellick "Teeth and Tongue Landscape", and just haven't felt any motivation to read through "Angel Scene". That being said, however, Mellick's story alone is worth more than the price of this double print. The story exists in a place that is exactly what the title makes it sound like. Never before have I read a story where after I finished, I remembered the characters and settings through actual physical sensation and texture rather than visual images. The words Mellick uses to describe the scenery are descriptive in the sense of feeling, smell and sound, and this goes a long long way to create a world in which these sensations become far more immportant than your vision. It is a completely unique manner of storytelling, and Mellick pulls it of effortlessly. Highly recommended for anyone who would like to experience a familiar medium in an unfamiliar manner.

"Teeth and Tongue Landscape" is an interesting, surreal look at a human being living in a world made of meat. The relationship between him and the robot woman he falls in love with is very interesting. During his search for more people, he runs into some very weird adventures.

The story has a very dreamlike quality, and Mellick's voice is well developed and the characters are all very unique. As usual, he creates a world that nobody else (to my knowledge) has ever conceived. So much happens in this short novella, and I wished for more detail in places, but overall it was very good. I would recommend this to any Mellick fan.

"Angel Scene" was, as it seems all of the other reviewers agree, a bit over the top with its violence and wasn't as good as the Mellick portion of the novel. Regardless, it is a fast read and it wasn't really that bad. Mostly, it was a bonus story that came with a very good Mellick book.

Angel Scene is written by Richard Kadrey, and is one of those things I mention where gratuitous violence is just there for the sake of violence. The only morale I could read into the story is that one needs to be themselves and can't be taught to be yourself, and love rises above all. The problem is that this comprises only 3 chapters out of the 30 chapters in the story. The rest is graphic descriptions of gore, violence, and wonton sexual activities. Overall I would say that it were hardly worth the paper printed on it, unlike the CM3 novels which use gore and sex to create an emphasis on a morale, this story had no plot, no morale, and was simply a gore lovers feast. Definitely a story I wouldn't recommend.

Unfortunately, a brilliant CM3 novel is attached to the backside of this double feature and one is forced to buy both just to get the gem. Teeth and Tongue Landscape is a strange book set in a world made flesh. People living on a living surface of meat and living landscapes. The story revolves around the narrator, the lone survivor in a strange disappearance of people. He meets a robotic female whom he falls in love, and spends his time trying to find others through which he can spend time with. He spends so much time trying to fit in, but then realizes that his uniqueness is what makes him fit in. This book would have to be his most gentile book out of the ones I have read so far. It focus mainly on the story and description of the landscape, with less sex and graphic violence then any of his other novels. A very interesting read and one I would recommend to people who want to be introduced to CM3 books without being overly offended.

This is the first time I've read anything by Kadrey and although Angel Scene was a bit repetitive I appreciated the style of splatterpunk. He rambles out sexual, physical, and emotional violence but does it in a matter-of-fact way that saves it from being obnoxious.

Mellick's novella is written in the same minimalist style as Razor Wire Pubic Hair. Like that book, it reads like he took a lot of time to craft each sentence. But in the introduction, he says that he doesn't remember writing the book. The reason why I prefer this one is because it doesn't contain so much sex and violence that it begins to feel repetitive to me. Now I like that sort of thing, but scattered around here and there rather than on every page.

Which brings me to Kadrey's novella, Angel Scene. That's exactly why I didn't care for it. Too much repetition and not much of anything else.

Regardless, Teeth and Tongue Landscape is so wonderful that I'm still going to give the book five stars. Its surreal world is so well-conceived that I could nearly taste the flavor of its meat. Everybody should visit there for an afternoon.

I liked the stories for the most part. I loved the gore in Angel Scene and how it made me twinge a little with the details, but it just needed some more direction. I want to know about the Men in Suits (might be a good follow-up novel). Need more detail.

Concerning Teeth story; good story. The story was everywhere, but I loved it. I am going to start buying Carlton's books more. I bet other authors start copying his style.

Overall, if you like bizarre books, might as well pick this up. It will only take a day or two to read.

For some reason, I was thinking that this book had the most literature quality to it than his others. I could see a class in uni devoted to 21 century literature and "Teeth and Tongue" landscape being on the syllabus. The style seems a little different than his other books so far.
I hope that made some sense.
I loved the book. There are lots of flesh landscapes in Mellick's books. Things (all things) seem to be alive, and have sex.
This, combined with the minimalist style and great, demented art of Kadrey's "Angel Scene" bring about a great book.

Hmmm....that's what I said after I read Angel Scene, which took about 45 minutes. It's a story about angels, employed by the Men In Suits to murder certain people. Why though, is never answered. Along with many other important questions. Some of the ideas of the story are intruiging, but it is told in such a poor manner, one can't really get into it. The author just carelessly describes the killing of people and the sexual encounters with the other angels (both male and female). It becomes very monotonous and boring after the first few chapters (most of which consist of a few paragraphs and a sexually explicit picture on the adjoining page - usually of some half naked female bound with rope). This is why this book gets only 3 stars.

Now, Carlton Mellick's story Teeth And Tongue Landscape on the other hand was fantastic. I was a little disappointed at first at the short chapters and lack of background information, specfically on how the world became flesh and how all the different creatures in it came to be (and how did all the cities disappear). I wasn't sure about the narrator's style at first, very jaunty and one-dimensional. But it grows on you like a scab in a fleshy world (wink wink). So much happens in the 100 or so pages this story is written in, you wish there was more. Between traversing the fleshy landscape with his metallic robot wife, meeting the race of identical Themrocs who live in an apartment complex that houses all of the countries of the world, escaping the demon mechanical jellyfish that thrive on human souls, comforting God as he wanders through the halls of the Themroc house depressed, and finally meeting the Night Serpent who will take him to the lost civilization of humans in the basement, the main character goes through a lot. If this book had been written as a longer novel, with more time spent developing each part, it would be amazing, a cult classic even. Nevertheless, Carlton Mellick III is definately a great author with lots of potential. I give it 4 1/2 stars. Averaged the whole book to 3 because of Angel Scene though.

I read Angel Scene first and I would be lying if I said I was not dissapointed. The artwork was more interesting than the story. The idea was cool but it was really just a short story not a novel. Oh well, at least it was different I would give it threee stars for that and the interesting artwork. I think the author has a lot of cool ideas so I will seek out some of his other work. The Mellick novella was great. Very entertaining and the underlining moral was great. I know what this character is feeling I have been there before. Thank god i found punk rock. I'm beggining to be really grateful for eraserhead press.(and no I'm not a phony reviewer).